Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Unlike virtually every other recipe featured here, I’m not
going to say this chicken Kiev is “easy to make.” It’s really not. You could
follow this exactly as shown, and still have undercooked meat, or leaking
butter, or any number of other tragedies. So, why try?

Because, if and when you pull this off, you’ll be enjoying
one of the greatest chicken experiences of your life. It’s also one of the
greatest garlic experiences of your life, as well as one of the greatest butter
experiences of your life.

What makes this so challenging is that you can’t really cut,
or poke into the Kiev to check for doneness. That would release the garlic-parsley butter prematurely, and be anticlimactic, to say the least.
So, we go blindly by time. There are also variables like breast size, freezer
temps/time, and oven crowding to deal with.

However, if you use 8-oz breasts, and freeze exactly as shown here,
then after a 2 to 3 minute deep-frying, these should take about 15-17 minutes to
bake. The good news is that you have a few minutes after that before
the meat gets noticeably drier, so you can give it a little extra time if it
seems like it needs it.

One rule great of thumb is to listen for the butter. These
are generally done when the garlic butter inside is hot enough to be forced out through the seams on the bottom, and when that happens you’ll hear a sizzle,
and maybe see some butter leaking on to your pan. This is usually time to pull them
out, and let them rest five minutes.

If you’re cooking more than four of these, make sure they
are well spaced, and give them a few extra minutes. If I do these for
a larger group, I always do a few extra, so I can cut into one and
double-check. Don’t worry, it will be our secret.

Anyway, if you’re feeling brave, and want to enjoy something
named after a place sort of near where they are holding the Winter Olympics,
then I hope you give this amazing chicken Kiev recipe a try soon. Enjoy!

Just as I was reading up to before you said "If I do these for a larger group, I always do a few extra, so I can cut into one and double-check." I was thinking the exact same thing, if I make it i'm going to do an extra one just to cut n test for doneness.

this is amazing. i've watched sections of your video several times.... how you're able to make a "ball" out of this is beyond me!!! and it works! I've had this with terragon btw and it's wonderful, but flat leaf parsely is a winner.

frankly speaking, it looks like you're able to put in MORE garlic butter than the versions i know and have done... always a winner! will definately try this again and go for ball formation!!!

Dear Chef John,Warm greetings and it's been awhile since i wrote to you,

it's funny that after you promised long ago to show us your sister's recipe for the Chicken Kiev it has finally happened, i remember from long time back you said you would one day show us and finally it's happened.

thank you as always and guess what my family is going to have for lunch this Sunday ?

I'm in the middle of making this tonight and when I pounded the breasts flat, they just didn't come out anything like the ones on your blog. The ones you did look like a deformed T, mine look more like a rectangle. So far, everything else is coming out the same but I need to about double the time in my freezer. Living in Italy, utilizing borrowed appliances, I just don't have the same cooling power as you, but I'm used to improvising. I'm serving with an asparagus risotto with a gorgonzola cream sauce plus a light salad. Can't wait and thanks for the recipes Chef.

I made your Chicken Kiev for dinner this evening! My family loved it! I did everything just as you said with no variation (smart girl). It came out perfectly and they loved the drama moment when they cut into the meat and the garlic/herb butter oozed out. (They'd inadvertently seen your video a few days ago as I was watching it, and they ooo'd and awww'd.) My chicken breasts were 10 oz each so I gave them a few extra minutes. I also served sauteed red cabbage (on hand from the garden) and mashed potatoes. Marbled brownies for dessert. Thank you, Chef, for yet another great recipe and, as always, you are hilarious!

Well, mine turned out not exactly perfect. The taste/texture was everything I'd excpect, however the orgasmic moment of cutting into the chicken breast and having molten butter and garlic spew forth didn't quite happen. The garlic and herbs were all there but most of the butter leaked out. 1 of the 4 turned out okay, but it was my test breast :( Rave reviews from my dinner guests at the taste and they didn't know any better regarding the butter. So, all in all I'd chalk it up as a success with some good lessons learned.

When I was a kid Chicken Kiev was the fanciest thing I'd ever seen! Over the years I have tried and FAILED to recreate this dish. UNTIL NOW! I made this Friday night and it turned out perfectly. Be careful as you pound out the chicken, one of mine had a couple of small holes but I was able to save it in the breading process. I actually broke out my deep fryer to assure golden goodness. Paired it with a Viognier... yeah that's right, I'm grown and fancy now!

Another BANGER! I followed your steps to the tee and I had tremendous results...my wife and I are still burping up garlic! HAHA...ok maybe TMI. But this was an awesome recipe once again. I did all the prep work beforehand...did the butter, put it in the fridge and then beat the chicken, wrapped it and put it in the fridge for maybe 2 hours until my wife got home. Followed the rest of steps from the freezer on after that and had no issues. I did add the tarragon and chives which I loved! I was very proud to complete the recipe with no leakage and also have the requisite explosion of herb butter when finished. I served this with mashed cauliflower and broccoli. Winner winner chicken dinner! Thanks again!

Just made this for dinner tonight for my boyfriend an I. Followed the recipe to the T, and one word, delicious! Simply delicious. What a foody satisfying recipe. I will be making this again soon. Thank you for great recipe.

Made this tonight for dinner for my boyfriend and I. Followed the recipe to the T, and one word, delicious! Simply delicious. What a foody satisfying recipe. I will be making this again soon. Thank you for the great recipe

Chef John! Made this 2 nights ago and it was great! It did take me longer to prep but, totally worth it! I was afraid I'd mess it up some how but I followed the steps exactly and it worked out fine!! Because of your videos I'm constantly trying new things! Thank you!

Thank you so much for your great videos! I have just tried making Chicken Kiev and it turned on to be so delicious. Looking forward to trying more of your recipes...on and love your sense of humor! FYI I did give you credit for recipe on our site...here is a link if you are interested to take a look. http://flavorshades.com/2014/03/chicken-kiev/

Hey- Can Chef John or someone explain the the proportions for Chicken Kiev? In the ingredients it says 4 (8oz chicken breast) so 32oz of chicken? However in the video Chef says put half the butter on one of the chicken breast? Do I have my quantities wrong? When I made this there was sooo much chicken and not that nice pocket like in the video.

Not sure I understand the question, but you have 4 large breast (8-oz each), and you have your butter mixture which you divide equally between the 4 breasts. Each breast gets about 1 1/2 tbsps of butter.

We made this yesterday, I was TERRIFIED... mostly because I've never deep fried on the stove before, but also because I was worried they wouldn't be done enough. The chicken was exactly 8oz each, one ended up being more of a mushroom top shape, the other a baseball. Baseball had some slight pink in it at the end, mushroom top was perfect. And they both exploded with such great flavour! I added some slivered basil into my herb butter because I had some fresh stuff. Out of this world. Thanks chef!

Made it today. You are. A genius chef john.it worked out so well and not a drop of butter was spilled before the knife entered the meat. Used 6oz chicken breasts and it was not dry at all.So happy I went with your recipe and not one where you just cut a pocket and bread it

Chef John, followed this recipe word for word including the sprinkle of salt and cayenne on top and it was sesational. I served it with creamy mashed potatoes and corn on the cob. Keep your ideas, humor going,��love it all. Anand

If there is people out there, who simply couldn't wrap the chicken round, like me, whether you didn't pound it right, or for whatever reason, it really is fine, just stick a toothpick the secure it and cook it like usual! I have one that wrapped nicely and one that just wouldn't marry their ends together, I secure it with toothpick and cooked it, it still came out perfectly moist and delicious! Don't worry about a little garlic butter leaking as well, it really didn't make much of a difference :) Just make sure you keep that toothpicked one to yourself and that you take the toothpick out before you start eating!

Hope chef John won't cringe at my stupid suggestion, but for a person who clearly is not talented in cooking like me, you need to try this, even if you screw up some parts, it could still turns out amazing!